Saturday, June 05, 2010

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 5, 2010) – Three Filipino men kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf militants had been executed in the restive province of Basilan, where security forces are pursuing the terrorist group tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya, officials said.

Officials said the trio - Claudio Mananita, Rolando Francisco and Dariel Quintella – were kidnapped on May 27 by Abu Sayyaf gunmen headed by Puruji Indama. Their bodies were discovered by civilians on Saturday in Sukaten village in Sumisip town.

“The bodies were discovered at around 9.45 in the morning today and there is an ongoing operation against the kidnappers,” said Brigadier General Eugenio Clement, commander of military forces in Basilan, one of five provinces under the troubled Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao.

The kidnappers executed the trio by musketry after their families failed to pay some three million pesos ransom demanded by the Abu Sayyaf, blamed for the spate of terrorism and killings in the southern Philippines.

Indama’s group was also behind many kidnappings in Zamboanga City and Basilan last year and tagged as behind the series of attacks on government troops in the province.

In April, two government soldiers were wounded in a clash with the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan’s Sumisip town after militants detonated bombs in Isabela City, the provincial capital, and sprayed automatic gunfire on fleeing villagers that left dozens of people dead and wounded. (Mindanao Examiner)